


The Night Before

by ShadowHaloedAngel



Series: Then and Now [11]
Category: Hawkeye (Comics), Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Brothers, Bullying, Clintfeels, Gen, Joining the circus, Kid-fic, Kids collect stupid things because they can, Kids in care, What makes something valuable anyway?
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-02-07
Updated: 2015-02-07
Packaged: 2018-03-10 23:32:18
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 960
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3307280
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ShadowHaloedAngel/pseuds/ShadowHaloedAngel
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Clint is tired of being Clinton Francis Barton and just part of the system. He wants to be somebody else, and Barney has finally found them a way out. Maybe if he joins the circus he can become something else, like The Amazing Hawkeye... but there are some things he has to leave behind first, and it's hard to say goodbye to an old life.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Night Before

**Author's Note:**

  * For [flightinflame](https://archiveofourown.org/users/flightinflame/gifts).



Clinton Francis Barton stared down at the array of objects spread over the narrow bed before him. Even at first glance the bed was not a comfortable one. The frame wasn't stable, or particularly sturdy, the mattress was thin and the pillow looked almost like someone had just folded up a towel and stuffed it into a pretty case. The blanket was stained and the sheet wasn't much better. Both were moth-eaten. 

The collection of things scattered over the surface seemed perfectly at home in that environment. There was a catapult, it was well built enough, but it had also been well used and it had seen better days by this point. There was a collection of various shiny and interestingly coloured or shaped pebles, the kind boys collected because they looked interesting and if there was any potential value in trading them it would be exploited to the full. Pebbles were all he had to trade anyway, he didn't have enough money for any of the fancy card games that some of the other kids at school played. He couldn't follow them anyway, that was one of the reasons they picked on him. 

He knew he wasn't the easiest kid to have around, but Barney had stuck with him any way, stood up for him when the others called him stupid or tried to push him around. Clint had squared up himself once or twice, it wasn't like he was afraid of taking blows, he'd had enough practice, but Barney tended to intervene and get in the way and scuffle... and then it was over, but when Clint tried to thank him Barney just gave him the most disgusted look, like Clint was something on the bottom of his shoe, and the younger boy went away with his head hanging down, well and truly put back in his place. It was weak to need saving, but Barney wouldn't let him defend himself either and Clint wasn't sure how he was supposed to do the right thing. But Barney was older and Barney was smart, that was why they were going to leave tonight and get away from all this. 

There were thousands of stories about kids running away to the circus, or at least that was what Barney said (and Clint trusted him implicitly), and just their luck there was a circus in town on the night that the care worker who never really checked beds because he was too busy getting drunk and watching porn on the big TV downstairs was on. Barney had made Clint promise that he would meet him - it was easy for a kid that small to slip out of the window and down the tree outside, and Barney could get out of going to bed at all - and that he wouldn't breathe a word. Tonight they would be free and they would get away from all the adults who tried to control them and who claimed ot know what was best but for some reason never found the Bartons worth trying all that hard for. They'd get away from the other kids who treated them like they were worth less because they were in care, because their clothes didn't fit, because Clint was 'slow'... and they'd be free and clear with people who understood, people who were outcasts like them and exotic animals and playing games to earn a living. Everything Clint had heard or seen about the circus made it seem like a life full of splendour and hours of fun and he couldn't wait to start living that life instead of this one. It couldn't be worse anyway. 

And that was what had brought him here, staring at the collection of his precious things and trying to decide what to take. Barney had said they couldn't take much and Clint knew most of this stuff was worthless even if it was important to him, but it was still hard to decide what to say goodbye to. He'd take the catapult, maybe he could show them how good his aim was, maybe they'd be impressed... he wouldn't take the stones, there was no room for dull things like that in a world of glitz and glamour.... his fingers caught on the simple beaded bracelet which his mother had loved and let him play with at the very edge of his memories... he wasn't sure if she'd be proud now, or disappointed. Her boys were sticking together, but she'd always wanted better for them than this...

With a lump in his throat, Clint detangled his fingers from the string and turned away, stepping towards the window. This was the start of a new life now, and no matter how much he wanted to keep it, he couldn't take his old life with him. 

He squared his shoulders in the thin fabric of his too-big shirt and took a deep breath, working at the hinges he'd greased with some of the fat from dinner until the creaky pane had come down far enough for him to squeeze out.

He took one last glance back at the bed, and the things that lay abandoned there like the boy he had been. 

Maybe one day he'd come back for them. But for now, he was moving on to bigger and better things. He didn't want to be Clinton Francis Barton anymore. Maybe they'd give him a new name at the circus and he could be a star. He liked that idea. He could be amazing. The amazing.... hmm.... he started climbing down the tree, allowing this new train of thought to distract him from everything that was getting further and further away with every scramble, every foothold. 

The Amazing Hawkeye. 

He liked the sound of that.


End file.
